88 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The parts of the flowers that are conspicuous in our 
Eucalypts and Acacias are the parts that are more or less con¬ 
cealed in many of our cultivated blossoms. Included in the 
same order is a gigantic bean ( Entada scandens) whose pods are 
sometimes 6 ft. to 8 ft. in length. The individual seeds are often 
hollowed, mounted with silver, and converted into fancy match¬ 
boxes. Very many of the papilionaceous section of the Legu- 
minosse produce handsome flowers, such as Indig of era, 
Dillwynias, Pultenceas , and Sivainsonias. Many of the latter 
are remarkable for spiral or curved lower petals and beautiful 
blossoms, but are frequently deleterious. Besides these there 
are others equally attractive in almost endless variety. But 
probably none are more charming than Clianthus Dampieri, 
Sturt’s Desert Pea, whose silver-green foliage and large, 
bright, gorgeous blossoms render it peculiarly conspicuous and 
attractive. 
Next in importance, when we consider the number of species, 
are the Proteads, than which, perhaps, no order of indigenous 
plants has greater interest either for the gardener or the botanist. 
The name bestowed on this order (from the South African Protea 
of Linnaeus) is singularly appropriate, for these plants exhibit a 
variability which excels even the mutable characteristic for 
which the mythical sea-god was so remarkable. Probably the 
commonest and most widely distributed Prot-eads are the native 
Honeysuckles (Banhsia spp.). They owe I/heir singular popular 
name probably to the fact that they, in common with many 
other proteaceous plants, yield a copious supply of nectar. While 
the aborigines greedily suck the flowers to obtain this sweet 
fluid, yet with Europeans its use is frequently attended with 
feelings of nausea and headache. Dryandra plumosa is often 
cultivated for the sake of its large cylindrical flower-clusters and 
its deeply serrated and peculiar foliage. Both flowers and 
foliage of this unique plant will keep almost indefinitely. Of 
Grevilleas there are probably over 160 varieties, but as yet only 
about half-a-dozen species are in cultivation. These include the 
stately G. robusta, or Silky Oak, as it is popularly called. Its 
immense comb-shaped trusses of bright orange flowers render the 
tree a strikingly conspicuous object in the landscape. These 
blossoms have sometimes been fancifully compared to flame, and 
have earned for this species the popular name of “ Flame tree,” 
